A new paradigm for vj-ing with Modul8

Tag Archive: sequencing

Yes, it’s been a little quiet on the blog front lately, so I though I’d give you a little teaser of what’s in development…

The new DMX sequencer, which is very lovely. Can sequence up to 512 channels with 2 levels of brightness. Uses the timecode protocol for the clock signal so requires either Gener8 or the Timecode module to run, which is great because this means you’ll also be able to sync it to midi clock.

Great for working with L.E.D.

Available in the online library already : )

In the brewing is an updated version which allows for full RGB output, and a more refined UI. I will give full instructions and perhaps a video when it’s available. : )

One of the powerful but hidden delights of Gener8 is a sequencing method which can quickly produce small Clip sequences in a live situation: Follow Actions

So, here’s a short tutorial to help you master it.

Some salient points to remember:

Each Clip can have its own ‘Follow Action‘.

A Clip’s ‘Follow Action‘ will occur a set number of beats after that Clip has been triggered.

There are a number of different types of ‘Follow Actions‘ which can be applied: Increment, Random, Other, etc.

Step 1 – Prepare your Clips

To do any kind of sequence of Clips, we’re going to need some Clips to sequence. So let’s get started:

Spark up Modul8, make sure you have a ‘New Project’ so things don’t get confusing.

Open up the Gener8 Launchpad and Editor modules (these are the core modules and you’ll need to run these together).

Once the Launchpad is ready, create yourself a few Clips on the 1st layer. To do this simply click on the preview panels on the empty Clip holders. NOTE: It’ll be useful for the sake of this tutorial to create your Clips in the same clip-slots as the image below.

Step 2 – Assign Media to your Clips

You can skip this step, but the final result will obviously be more effective with media!

Chuck some of your favourite media in your Media Panel. (select a few files from a Finder window and drag/drop them into the Media Panel)

Activate a Gener8 Clip.

Select a media for that Clip from the Media Panel.

Activate the next Gener8 Clip (make sure the Clip trigger has stopped flashing – a useful tip when you are assigning a lot of media’s is to turn off the quantise to speed the process up)

Select the next media for the second Clip. 🙂

And so on, repeat until all your Clips have media assigned to them.

Tip: You can also change the media assigned to a Clip in the Clip Inspector (top left – Trig pane). There is a value for ‘Media’ number there.

Step 3 – Create a Follow Actions

As I mentioned before, there are quite a few different types of Follow Actions, but first we will have a play with the ‘Increment’ action.

Select the topmost Clip by clicking on the media preview of the Clip in the Launchpad (it doesn’t need to be active, you can do this on the sly during your performance.) Selected Clips have an orange square around them.

Okay, the Clip Inspector will now be open on the top left of the Gener8 Launchpad, and will be displaying the properties of the selected clip. Select the ‘TRIG’ pane to view the Follow Actions settings.

Next, set the Follow Actions menu to ‘Increment’. You will see a further setting appear, we’ll leave this at the default setting of ‘1’ for now. Time for some explanations…

How Does a ‘Follow Action’ Work?

Okay, now we have a Follow Action in place (in the above instance it’s an ‘Increment’ action), the next time this Clip is triggered, it will send out a secondary trigger which will occur a set number of beats after the initial Clip is triggered. You have options for which Clip is triggered next, and how many beats will occur before the ‘follow trigger’ happens.

You can only:

Trigger Clips in the same layer.

Delay triggers by whole beats.

Everything else is pretty much game, but remember – changes to a Clip’s Follow Actions settings will not take effect until that Clip is re-triggered.

Step 4 – Let’s make a Follow Loop.

We have an Increment action on our 1st Clip, let’s see if we can make a simple sequence which works in a loop.

Select Clip 2 and make a further ‘Increment’ action for this Clip, only this time let’s set the ‘INCR.’ value to ‘2’.

Now select Clip 4 and again make another ‘Increment’ action. This time we will set our ‘INCR.’ value to ‘-3’.

Re-trigger Clip 1 and sit back while you sequence plays…

So, how is this working?

Our 1st Clip has an increment value of 1, which means it will trigger the Clip ‘1’ space below it, which is ‘Clip 2’.

Clip 2 has an increment value of ‘2’, so it will trigger the Clip ‘2’ spaces below it: ‘Clip 4’.

Clip 4 has an increment value of ‘-3’, so it will trigger the Clip 3 spaces above it: ‘Clip 1’.

Works in nanoKontrol Scene 3, leaving you plenty of space to map you own controls.

Toggles between A/B layers (top push button 9)

Adjust layer transparency/alpha values (faders 1-5)

Adjust layer audio volume (knobs 1-5)\

Select active row (knob 9)

Trigger clip on active row (bottom buttons 1-5)

Trigger entire active rows (bottom button 9)

Dedicated crossfader slider (fader 9)

Show/Hide layers (top push buttons 1-5)

If you’re on the mailing list you will receive a download link, and if you’re not join up and I’ll send you the goods.

I’ll be posting more info about this update over the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled. So much to teach you all. I am in the process of building more tutorials and updating the manual at last too.

Going back sometime last year, I had the fortune of being passed one of the new Faderfox controllers by Boris Edelstein (creator of Modul8). The controller is Boris’s own design and is being manufactured by Faderfox. For my part I was asked to come up with some modules for the device. Which I have done.

And here is a screenshot of the mod I have made.

For those of you on the ball you will know that with the release of M8 2.7 there is some simple integration of for the controller itself (including feedback for the LED’s etc).

What my module does is go much further, allowing full control of all your maps, some system set-ups for useful & complex procedures (media selection, syphon sources, colour swatches, sequencing), and allows you to easily produce an an infinite amount of patches, which can then be exported to XML.

Mostly bug fixes and problem solving with this release, although some important issues have at last been tackled.

MIDI CLOCK Issues:

Right then, as some of you may have noticed, depending on your external clock source, when running from MIDI clock, the Launchpad clock tended to drift slightly. It is now as tight as a pair of speedos!

Any issues that affected the Clip Follow function under MIDI clock are now resolved with this update.

TIMECODE Update:

I have also tightened up the TIMECODE scripts and adjusted the TIMECODE protocol, making it easier to use for the developers community, and also improving performance.

Unfortunately this involves the upsetting of any other modules which use the previous TIMECODE protocols. so I am including an update of:

I have made some headway into improving the visual transition between Clips, you may have noticed that it is not always as smooth as it should be….

Here we have an issue which I thought I wouldn’t be sorted till the end, but I have made a major leap in understanding. Although I feel a real solution may be at the very limits of what is possible with modules.

To explain a little:-

When sending a keyword control to update the media, Modul8 has a short delay (depending on the codec type, file size, disk access time, etc. etc.) while it preloads that media before it can be displayed on the output. Previously I have ignored this, and the results have been quite ugly in many cases. With simple media changes this problem is unnoticeable, however when changing from Clips with a complex set of filters, scaling or other effects, Modul8 was updating the other control properties before the new media kicked in (usually about 2 frames), and therefore briefly applying those effects to the previous Clip.

So, I have introduced a user definable delay, so that the media can preload before the other controller values are applied.

To access and adjust this value, click on the ‘Preferences’ button in the Editor module. Here you will find a value called ‘Media preload’. The default value is 2 frames, which seems to behave fairly well. If in doubt, leave it alone, but if you are experiencing ‘Transition Glitches’, by all means have a play. I am considering introducing a clip specific delay – let me know what you think.

This, I feel is a solution in progress, and sometimes tight delays can glitch out Modul8 to the point where controllers in the main window do not correlate to the results on the output.

This is the kind of annoying issue that users should never have to deal with, but as it is so media specific I’m afraid the ball does land in the user’s court.

Other Improvements:

And it’s not all boring bug fixes and stuff, some new tools have been added too.

SET WARP POINT – Accurate setting of time warping point can now be applied at the click of a button. Note, warping is still in its infancy and I will be working to smooth it out in the future.

ZOOM TO FIT – Zoom the timeline editor to fit the In-Out points of your loop.

NUMERICAL ENVELOPE VALUES – Adjust envelope points with a numerical value. Just select the point (also works with time warp markers) and adjust its value. Certain controllers still go out of range of the timeline display, but the numerical value can overcome this. I will be addressing the vertical envelope range in future updates.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you are upgrading from version 0.51, the Editor module will bug out on first run. Do not be alarmed, just restart the modules and all will be happy again. This is a symptom of the transition to the new Timecode protocol.